the impact of story

this story is about a boy and a book cover and a wedding.

a homeschooling mother i'd known for a long time bought my book. her teenage son, whom i'll call M, saw the cover. a man holding a sword. it captured M's imagination. one day M's mother couldn't find the book. M had been sneaking it out of his mom's room to read it. when the mom found out that M had finished the book, she was in tears. because of some learning challenges, M had never finished reading a novel.

fast forward a few years. M went to a youth camp and met a girl. i'll call her E. M and E became friends. they talked on the phone. M had me send a copy of Eldala to E so he could share a story he loved with her.

one day, E sent me a letter. among other things, she said, "When Jessara accepted her responsibility as Malazia and eventually became queen, I found a new courage and understood that 'the only one that underestimates my importance is me.' Thank you for sharing Teleria with me. Thank you for the courage."

over the course of time, M and E realized they had a heart connection and started thinking of each other as Eldala. last week, there was an invitation in the mail. M and E are getting married and wanted me to come to their wedding. i wish i could. distance and other obligations will keep me away.

sometimes i can't believe that Eldala had a part in bringing them closer. most of the time i forget that my stories have any impact at all, especially when the writing is hard and i've been working on the same scene for what seems like weeks.

and then an invitation comes and i remember -- every word i share has impact. your words have impact. you never know what will happen when someone reads your novel or your blog post or your poetry. but if you never write, nothing will happen.